A lot going on in Clipperland right now:

Elton Brand Returns. EB was the centerpiece on the best Clipper team in history (2005-2006) when the Clippers won their only first round matchup. After the team returned to mediocrity in 2007 and 2008, Elton Brand looked like he would rejuvenate the Clippers again by luring friend and star Baron Davis to the team. However, Elton bolted for Philly at the last second (in what looked like a David Falk powerplay) and left the Clippers with a downtrodden Baron and another couple years of sub-.500 basketball. The game tonight marks the first time that Elton has come back when Baron isn’t part of the team, and maybe the Clipper fans will remember all the good times he brought us, as even the shocking decision to quit the Clips allowed the Clippers to draft Blake Griffin.

A lovely story from Gary Woelfel about current Clipper Chris Kaman and ex-Clippers Corey Maggette, Elton Brand and Marko Jaric chipping in over $70,000 for ex-coach Kim Hughes’ prostate cancer surgery, so that Hughes could get the operation earlier than the doctor under the Clippers’ insurance policy would allow. Those four players should be commended for their acts for their fellow man as well as their desire to win, because the issue here wasn’t whether or not Hughes would have gotten surgery. He would have, only later than he wanted. The problem was that the operation would force him to miss time. That’s where people are poking at the Clippers. If they thought that Kim would help the team, why not spend the $70,000 to have Hughes ready and coaching for the season? And if they were okay with Kim getting the surgery and missing time, thus not being that valuable as a coach, then why have him as a coach at all? That’s where the cheapness argument comes in. Unfortunately, Sterling seems to overshadow everything, even great deeds done by Kaman, Maggette, Jaric and Brand. Kudos to those four.

The more disturbing Sterling news story, was his admission that he didn’t know what his former GM Elgin Baylor had accomplished as a basketball player. As shrewd a businessman as Sterling is, I find this hard to believe, especially as he admits later in the article that he had spent a quarter of a billion dollars and expected to win. From the article, Sterling sounds both oblivious and condescending, having little idea about the timeline (which is somewhat understandable) and the reasoning (much less understandable) for the ascension of Elgin Baylor within the Clippers Organization. I have a hard time finding common ground with Sterling, except when he says “I don’t profess to know anything about basketball,” and while I believe that his rumored meddling suggests otherwise, I would say that the results of the franchise, and how to run the Clippers, whether from his professed statements or the rumored meddling, shows that, indeed, Sterling doesn’t know much about basketball.

Keys to the Game

- Go inside. The 76ers have a fantastic defense, ranked ninth in the league in defensive efficiency, but that doesn’t mean that their bigs are great defenders. The Clippers need to get Blake, Kaman and (to some extent) DeAndre attacking in the paint.

- Perimeter defense. Starting guards Mo Williams and Randy Foye will have a heavy load guarding the larger and more athletic Jrue Holiday and Andre Iguodala. The 76ers starting guards combined for 44 points in the first matchup and that was when the Clippers had Eric Gordon, their best perimeter defender, on the floor. Foye and Williams don’t have the physical abilities to contain each player, so they’ll have to have a plan of attack, and know the areas to which Iggy and Jrue need to be funneled. Defending the perimeter, more so than normal, will be a team effort.

- Turnovers. Against Memphis, the Clippers turned the ball over 19 times and in the last game against the 76ers, they turned the ball over 14 times to 76ers 3. The total wasn’t bad against the Sixers but the differential of 11 was. Over the course of the season, the Sixers have force their opponents into .66 turnovers more per game. That doesn’t sound like much, but consider the differential is the 10th best in the league. The Clippers will have to be particularly careful with Jrue and Iggy, as they combine to average 3.1 steals per game.

Injury Report

Eric Gordon: wrist, out
Ryan Gomes: knee, questionable

Andre Igoudala: knee, probable

Clippers didn’t lose this game in the second half, they lost it in the first. The last two quarters were only an anticlimactic continuance of their early game bad habits.

“They were more hungry than us but that doesn’t give us an excuse to be that soft,” Vinny said.

The most obvious disappointment in the game was, strangely, Blake Griffin. He scored 8 points on 4 for 10 shooting and 0 for 3 from the free throw line while grabbing 9 rebounds (his fourth consecutive non-double double, keeping him one shy of Elton Brand’s franchise record of 55 double doubles). But those numbers belied the real problem, which was his terrible defense on Zach Randolph.

Randolph scored 32 points on 12 for 18 shooting, grabbed 12 rebounds and barely had to work for position in the post against Griffin. Didn’t matter if Randolph was on the block, passing around in the high low, on the fast break or even if he was shooting threes, he got what he wanted because he used his girth to seal off Blake and create open shots. He also played Blake rarely needed any help on Blake on defense, allowing the rest of his team to cause havoc for the Clippers offense.

The main culprit for defensive mayhem was Tony Allen, he swiped the Clipper players three times (twice in the first quarter) as a part of the Grizzlies 14 team steals. 14. The Clippers could hardly dribble or pass, let alone shoot, which would explain why the Clips shot a mediocre 40 percent from the field and a terrible 23.5 percent from beyond the arc.

Even beyond Blake, there were loads of poor games. Mo Williams was the lone starter for the Clips to reach double figures and he only scored 11 points on 3 for 8 shooting (2 for 4 from beyond the arc, 3 for 3 from the free throw line), dished out 2 assists while turning the ball over 5 times. Randy Foye notched 8 points and just a single assist. DeAndre Jordan only picked 3 rebounds to go along with his 9 points (although he had two blocks, one a pretty spectacular bank off the glass to start a fast break). And Ryan Gomes, he was pulled from the game in the third quarter due to a bruised right knee, but he wasn’t doing anything before that happened. Gomes failed to sink a single basket on 4 tries.

The only silver linings in the game came in the form of Eric Bledsoe and Chris Kaman. Bledsoe’s best play happened in the first quarter when he chased down O.J. Mayo and blocked him from behind on the fast break. He also drew a smart (can’t believe I’m using that with Bledsoe) charge on Mike Conley and used his strength and athleticism to get to the rim repeatedly. Unfortunately for the Clippers, the majority of Bledsoe’s points came when the game was far out of reach (13 of his 19 were in the last 15 minutes, when the Griz had mounted a 25 point lead). Kaman scored 8 of his 14 points in the first half, but even he had some trouble taking Marc Gasol. Kaman shot 7 for 13 but he really had to earn it. At 4:20 in the first Kaman set up for what he thought was an open jumper at the top of the key, only to have Gasol block it. Unlike the rest of his teammates though, Kaman chased after the block and found himself under the basket after he gathered the rebound, where he made the quick bucket.

That said, the bench, even with Bledsoe and Kaman in the lineup didn’t perform nearly as well as they would have liked. They allowed players like Grievis Vasquez, Darrell Arthur and Leon Powe to score efficiently and often. Powe scored 8 points in only 4 minutes of play, while Arther and Vasquez had more moderate evenings in their respective 20 and 16 minutes when they scored 12 and 11 points. Those three had huge hand in turning the game into a rout at the end of the first half. The Clippers are now 0-16 when trailing on the road after halftime.

As horrible as this loss was, the road trip proved far more successful than anyone could have reasonably predicted given the Clippers’ record on the road this season and the fact that Eric Gordon injured himself before the trip. In the next nine games, only one will be played outside of Staples (in Phoenix), so the Clippers will be able to feast on homecooking and grow from their more sweet than sour road trip.

If the Clippers win against the Griz, and go 4-1 on the road trip, it’ll be the best record on a road trip of 5 or more games since the Clips moved to L.A. Had the Clippers not bungled up the New Jersey game (for various reasons beyond Blake’s missed free throw, like Mo’s awful shooting night and the poor front court defense on Kris Humphries and Brook Lopez), the Clippers would be shooting for an undefeated road trip, something that would have seemed unimaginable even with Eric Gordon on the court. But here the Clips are, 3-1 with a winnable game left against the Memphis Grizzlies.

The Grizzlies, especially without Rudy Gay, are no juggernaut in NBA, however their play vastly improved since the last time the two teams met. In the first match-up in L.A., in which the Clippers lost by a single point, the Grizzlies were only 10-14 on the year without having figured out how to gel. Now, the Grizzlies are 36 and 31 and have overtaken Phoenix, Houston, and Utah to grab hold of a game and a half lead of the last playoff spot in the West.

This mid-season improvement by the Grizzlies is exactly what the Clippers hope they have begun to see on this road trip. Maybe with this growth, the Clippers will be the team making the playoffs next year.

Keys to the Game

- Zach Randolph v. Blake Griffin. The two comprise half of the players in the NBA that average 20 points and 10 rebounds but the two couldn’t play a different style of play if they tried. Zach Randolph is a ground bound post wiz that finds his points by using his girth to muscle himself into good looks. Blake, as we all know, is about athleticism, even in his post moves. His most effective move is the spin move, now from either block, that he employs so well because of the quickness of the spin. Blake still isn’t a great defender though, and DeAndre and Kaman probably won’t leave Gasol, so it could be a rough night for Blake on defense.

- Turnovers. In the last match-up, the Clippers coughed up a whopping 26 turnovers which had something to do with the defense of Tony Allen (check out this fantastic Rob Mahoney post to get a better idea), Rudy Gay and Marc Gasol. The three combined for 11 steals. And yet, the Griz’s defense only improved when they traded lottery bust Hasheem Thabeet for Shane Battier. The Griz force the most turnovers in the league, and the Clippers have the second worst turnover percentage (25.9 percent), so turnovers are a very likely problem that the Clips will have to mitigate.

- Mo Williams. He’s been a lynchpin for the Clippers, it’s no coincidence that his worst performance for the Clips so far resulted in a loss to the Nets. And Mo will have plenty to deal with against the Grizzlies and their stifling defense. Since Eric Gordon is out, it’s likely that Mo will see Tony Allen on him for spells and he’ll need to keep the offense moving by providing outside shooting, caring for the ball and making sure that the players stay involved. Bledsoe and Baron struggled with their own play in the first match-up, combining for 6 points on 3 for 13 shooting, 10 assists and 9 turnovers. Mo has to do better.

Injury Report

Eric Gordon: wrist, out

Rudy Gay: dislocated left shoulder, out
Jason Williams: sore lower back, doubtful

Blake Griffin scored 26 points in the first half, Eric Bledsoe scored 21 points in the second half, Mo Wiliams scored 11 points in both halves and the rest of the Clippers banded to secure not just the win, but a winning road trip. As Patrick O’Neal said, it was the “[f]irst winning road trip in a long long time, five years to be exact when they’ve played five games or more.” The Clippers did win 2 of 3 games against Philadelphia, Detroit and Chicago back in December, but to say the Clippers have struggled on the road would be a gross understatement.

The Clippers jumped out on the Wizards in the first quarter and found themselves up 32-13 after only playing 9 plus minutes of the game. The scoring came on the back of Blake Griffin’s strong post play on, surprisingly, the left block. Blake has been most effective on the right block, with his spin move to the baseline for the bank layup, but he hasn’t shown the same abilities on the left block.

I can’t remember which game it was, but a few games back Mike Smith mentioned that Blake really liked the left block better than the right block. Blake’s affinity for the left block didn’t make sense. Against many teams his face up and drive to the baseline for the layup hasn’t been nearly as effective, and his righty hook in the lane was more of a anomaly than a viable move. However, this game showed Blake at his best on the left block. Almost all of his points in the game were from either the left block or the extended left block. He buried bank shots, had a sweet up and under (that unfortunately he missed), drove baseline for the bucket and the foul over Yi Jianlian and he spun to the middle at least a half a dozen times and either drew a foul or scored or both.

However, Blake’s command of the first half gave way to absence and uncertainty of the second half. He failed to score a single point in the second half and the Wizards pounce on that. John Wall carved up the Clippers, scoring 19 points in the first half, 25 points total, but he didn’t have the help from the rest of his teammates. Even Nick Young, the leading scorer on the team couldn’t muster enough help. Nick Young bricked an open three that would have tied the game at 68 (after he missed a layup and another three earlier) and completely altered the momentum of the game. However, the Clippers seized on their good fortune, Mo Williams (just like he did against Denver and Boston) buried a huge three on the other end before the Clippers took off again.

The Clippers run from being up only three in the third to winning by 21 points was impressive, as well as their winning road trip, their 4 and 2 record with Mo and the restarted growth that hadn’t been seen since they stagnated after Eric Gordon’s first injury. What will they do when Gordon comes back?

Notes:

• Eric Bledsoe took over the fourth quarter and made sure that Blake Griffin didn’t have to come back into the game. Whenever possible, Eric Bledsoe charged out on the break, at first lobbing up passes for DeAndre Jordan to slam down, until the Wizards started to close off on DeAndre and Bledsoe just took it to the hoop himself. He scored a career high 23 points, 17 of which were in the fourth quarter when the Clippers put the game away. His speed and athleticism create all types of openings for him that will be so useful once he catches up to the NBA style of play.
• The platoon of Kaman and DeAndre continues to work. Kaman made his shots from the baseline, found good looks around the rim and seemed to have pretty good chemistry with Eric Bledsoe. However, Kaman only grabbed 2 rebounds total despite scoring a hyper efficient 14 points on 6 for 9 shooting. DeAndre compensated for Kaman’s weaknesses by snatching 17 rebounds to go with his 10 points (all on dunks). He even airballed a free throw. At this point in time, it appears that the Clippers simply need both to win.
• Funniest successful moment: Kaman guarded Trevor Booker but had to hedge on John Wall on the screen, normally a recipe for disaster. But Wall tried to pass it and Kaman almost palmed the ball in the middle of the air. He then raced down the court, Booker behind him, Nick Young next to him and McGee filling in on the wing, ready to block Kaman. Not sure if Kaman really saw any of it because his head was down motoring to the hoop. And yet, it worked out perfectly. Kaman didn’t put the ball in the hoop, but McGee was whistled for goal-tending and Nick Young for the foul. Kaman walked to the line, smiling. He made the foul shot too. Definitely not something I expect to see with regularity, and it still frightens me, but it worked.
• Mo Williams bounced back to score 22 points on 7 for 14 shooting (a huge three with the lead down to three) while serving up 6 assists. One great pass occurred in the first quarter when he operated in the center of the court on the fast break, quickly caught the ball and whipped it to Randy Foye who took it hard to the rim. He has fit in perfectly with the team, helping make up for the absence of Eric Gordon because of his ability to shift from playmaker to scorer. In the lone game both he and Gordon played, Mo dished out 11 assists. So I’m not worried about how he’ll do when Gordon comes back.
• One of Blake’s best plays turned out to be an offensive foul. On the left block (again) he spun towards the baseline, cleared out with his left arm but because of that couldn’t get his body all the way around to face the hoop. So he swiveled hand under the ball, while flying through the air back wards, and put English on the ball to keep from careening of the glass. He made the shot but was whistled for the foul. He didn’t get the points, but amazing to watch.

Before the magnificence of Blake Griffin’s season set in, pundits around the league anticipated a close race for Rookie of the Year. John Wall not only fit as the proposed competition, but many believed he was the front runner. After all, point guards start with the ball in their hands, get to show off their play from the very start. Additionally, John Wall was presumed to be the man for the Wizards. No player represented their present and future, so Wall would be featured early. As capable as John Wall was and is, his popularity as the Rookie of the Year pick lost all momentum early in the season.

His ROY campaign didn’t correlate with poor play, Wall averaged 17.1 points and 9.1 assists per game in November, but he missed time due to injury right at the exact time that Blake found his footing. Wall missed 6 games in the month of November in two stretches, four games from the 13th to the 21st and two games between the 25th and the 1st of December. In most years, that would hardly be enough to derail momentum for anything, let alone a Rookie of the Year campaign. However, the first four game stretch coincided with the Clippers/Pistons game –

– as well as the Clippers/ Knicks.

By the time that Blake dunked on Timofey Mozgov, fans, writers, players were all clamoring to talk about Blake Griffin, and the Rookie of the Year race fell squarely into Blake’s lap.

Blake’s allure struck deeper than mere flashes potential, broader than consistently brutal dunks. He ran off a franchise record 27 consecutive double doubles, averaged more than 22 points and 12 rebounds per game and earned a spot in the All Star Game, Sprite Dunk Contest and Rookie Sophomore game. John Wall’s chances for ROY fell off the earth, but that doesn’t mean that he hasn’t played well. As little meaning as the Rookie Sophomore game has on the course of the season, John Wall’s 22 assists (with the ridiculously cool bounce pass alley-oop to Blake) signified not just his flare and potential but his ability to be the focal point of the offense while not scoring the most points. He has come to epitomize what every team would want, a strong, athletic point guard with an eye for getting teammates open shots and the ability to play tough defense.

So far this season, that hasn’t translated into wins. Wall still isn’t shooting well, but that’s not to blame for the Wizards tragically long 26 game road losing streak, nor the 16 total wins. The reality is that even great players can’t transform a team rebuilding from such a mess (even Ted Leonsis acknowledged the difficulty of rebuilding in a candid letter to his fans). Clippers fans can sympathize, even with Blake’s great play and an all but guaranteed Rookie of the Year win, the Clips only have won 26 games. However, the foundations of success feel like they are in place for the Clippers. Blake could be capital G great. And even though the Wizards have had to overcome mishaps with contracts, it wouldn’t be too much of a surprise to see John Wall giving Blake a much closer run for MVP in the future.

Keys to the Game

- John Wall. He averages 15.5 points, 8.8 rebounds and 1.6 steals and poses a threat every time he’s on the court. He assists on a gaudy 38.7 percent of his teammates field goals and his blistering speed combines with his quick hands to morph his defensive possessions into offensive fast breaks. Mo Williams, former teammate Eric Bledsoe and Randy Foye will have a tough time guarding this soon to be star.

- Mentally bounce back. Over the course of a season, there will be tough losses and the loss to New Jersey surely constitutes as one. But the Clippers can’t fall into that same malaise that allowed them to drop a game to the Raptors right after they lost to the Cavaliers.

- Lots of post offense. Both Blake and Kaman (and maybe even DeAndre) need to take advantage on the ditzy front court of JaVale McGee and Andray Blatche (although Blatche might not play). The two Wiz big men combine for 2.9 blocks per game (2.2 by JaVale and .7 by Blatche) but don’t be fooled, according to Hoopsstats.com the Washington bigs earned the 6th worst front court differential in the league. Clips need to take advantage of that.

Injury Report

Eric Gordon: wrist, out

Andray Blatche: strained right shoulder, doubtful
Cartier Martin: right knee tendinitis, questionable
Josh Howard: strained right hamstring, questionable
Rashard Lewis: right knee tendinitis, doubtful